Father of Highland Park mass shooting suspect indicted by grand jury

A grand jury Wednesday indicted the father of a man charged with opening fire during a July 4 parade last year in Highland Park, Illinois, killing seven people and wounding several dozen more.  

Robert Crimo Jr. was indicted on seven counts of reckless conduct, the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office confirmed to CBS News.

“Parents who help their kids get weapons of war are morally and legally responsible when those kids hurt others with those weapons,” Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart told CBS News in a statement. “We presented our evidence to a grand jury and they agreed the case should move forward.”

Crimo Jr. will be arraigned Thursday, Rinehart’s office said. Each count carries a maximum 3-year prison term.

Crimo Jr. was initially arrested on Dec. 16 and released on $50,000 bail. Prosecutors have said he helped his son, Robert Crimo III, to obtain a gun license years before the Highland Park shooting, even though the then-19-year-old had threatened violence.

In Illinois, 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds may only obtain a Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card with parental sponsorship, CBS Chicago reports.

At a brief hearing last month, prosecutors told Judge George Strickland at a Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan, north of Highland Park, they needed more time to present evidence to the grand jury.

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart has said the accusations against the father are based on his sponsorship of his son’s application for a gun license in December 2019. Authorities say Robert Crimo III attempted suicide by machete in April 2019, and in September 2019, was accused by a family member of making threats to “kill everyone.”

“Parents and guardians are in the best position to decide whether their teenagers should have a weapon,” Rinehart said after the father’s arrest. “In this case, the system failed when Robert Crimo Jr. sponsored his son. He knew what he knew and he signed the form anyway.”

Authorities say Illinois State Police reviewed the son’s gun license application and found no reason to deny it because he had no arrests, no criminal record, no serious mental health problems, no orders of protection and no other behavior that would disqualify him.

George M. Gomez, the father’s Chicago-area attorney, has called the charges against his client “baseless and unprecedented.”

A grand jury indicted Robert Crimo III in July on 21 first-degree murder counts, 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery, representing the seven people killed and dozens wounded in the attack at the holiday parade in Highland Park.

Robert Crimo Jr. has shown up at several of his son’s pretrial hearings, nodding in greeting when his son entered the courtroom shackled and flanked by guards. The father is a familiar face around Highland Park, where he was once a mayoral candidate and operated convenience stores.

Highland Park Police Chief Lou Jogmen told CBS News in a July 6 interview, two days after the massacre, that investigators believed the suspect had planned the shooting for several weeks.

“There was quite a bit of preplanning that went into it, and he was quite motivated to carry out the attack,” Jogmen said at the time.

Last month, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law a bill banning the sale and distribution of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. The bill had been debated for years but found renewed support following the Highland Park massacre. The 21-year-old suspect used a legally-purchased semiautomatic weapon, prosecutors said.